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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Richard Jones.
Cast: Jane Horrocks, Steven Beard, Linda Dobell, Gareth Farr, John Marquez, Sam O'Mahony-Adams, David Osmond, Susan Porrett, Sophie Russell, Liza Sadovy, Tom Silburn
Description: A drama about a good-hearted prostitute, whom the gods favour on their visit to Earth. Written by Bertolt Brecht, newly translated by David Harrower and directed by Richard Jones. With Jane Horrocks as Shen Te.
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0207922 2922
Website: www.youngvic.org
Change of role: tart-with-a-heart Shen Te (Jane Horrocks)
One of the great neglected plays of the 20th century has been rescued from near oblivion. It makes an absolutely devastating impact in a production by Richard Jones of stylised strangeness. The translator David Harrower has substituted the more suitable word “Soul” for “Woman” in the title of Bertolt Brecht’s tragi-comic parable, presumably to draw attention to his version’s arresting novelty.
Based on Brecht’s rewritten, almost unknown Santa Monica edition, which heightens the original drama by transforming its main character into a heroin rather than tobacco dealer, The Good Soul of Szechuan might have been written just yesterday. The Chinese location, expressionistically evoked by designer Miriam Buether as a workplace packed with bags of cement or sand and peopled with somnambulistic, drudge-like workers in masks, could be anywhere, though there is a distinct eastern look to most of the actors. Brecht depicts a world sunk in the depths of poverty and alienation. The Water Seller in Adam Gillen’s rending performance gives chorus-like voice to a pervasive despair.
Down from heaven on a visit, three senior gods who are satirically got up by Jones to resemble ineffectual do-gooders, discover the only person who will offer them a room for the night is Jane Horrocks’s generous-spirited prostitute, Shen Te.
In Brecht’s ingenious, ironic plotting, the Gods who reward Shen Te with enough money to buy a tobacconist’s shop are the cause of her undoing, her survival and realisation of how the world works. Greedily exploited in her shop by invasive squatters, she creates a transvestite alter-ego for herself, a tough-guy cousin, Shui Ta, who evicts the unwelcome guests and launches her as a business woman. The play is fuelled by the brilliant perception that everyone requires such a dual or split personality to survive. But when Shen Te falls hopelessly in love with an impecunious and exploitative pilot, crudely impersonated by John Marquez, the conflict between her two selves leads to disaster. Miss Horrocks, endearing but too subdued, fails to distinguish sufficiently between the passionate girl and the black-garbed businessman. But the production is bolstered by David Sawer’s pungent Kurt Weill-like musical interludes and Brecht’s dark, dazzling world-view.
Until 21 June (020 7922 2922, www.youngvic.org).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Brecht was German so really the play should only be performed by Germans in German to be strictly accurate. Is the poster saying Romeo and Juliet can only be played by Italians?
- James Allison, Nottingham UK
Okay, it is now the 21st Century and the Young Vic still insists on using white performers to play Chinese despite the numbers of talented British East Asian performers who don't get casting consideration due to institutional racism, snobbery and general low regard. I'm all for colourless casting but the playing stage is simply not level in this respect.
The Young Vic did this before in 2002 with 'The Soul of Ch'ien-nu Leaves Her Body' and to a lesser extent 'Monkey - A Tale From China' (with a couple of Chinese supporting actors thrown in for tokenistic measure). Good to see the Young Vic holding up tradition.
If these plays were based on Black or South Asian characters I doubt that The Young Vic would be so keen to minstrel up actors of the wrong ethnicity. It would at least use mixed-race performers to 'appease' both sides of the argument (another favourite tactic of a theatre world that has no real confidence in difference despite its lip service in support of racial diversity).
No wonder mainstream theatre remains the preserve of white middle class-minded people.
- Zhang Jin Yao, London England
